Bus ploughs into society wall in Noida, momos seller dead

Noida: A bus ferrying employees of a private company ploughed into the boundary wall of a group housing society in Noida on Tuesday, killing a fast food seller who had set up his shop outside the residential complex, police said.

The deceased has been identified as Nepali-origin Deepak (30), while his younger brother Sushil (18) suffered severe injuries in the crash and has been hospitalised in critical condition, the police said.

However, eye-witnesses claimed that one more person who worked at the momo stall suffered injuries in the episode.

The bus had ploughed some five metres into society after crashing its boundary wall and was barely 10-15 metres away from one of the low-rise towers in the society and lay crashed on perpendicularly on an inner peripheral road of the housing complex.

Shortly after the incident, several locals, including women and children, gathered at the spot. Some utensils, momo steamers, vegetables and other items were seen lying underneath the bus, too.

The police and eyewitnesses estimated that around 20-25 passengers were on board the bus when the incident took place at 6.54 pm on a road next to Shri Ram Apartments in Sector 118, under the Sector 113 Police station limits.

They said the harrowed passengers of the bus left for their homes soon after the crash, while the conductor and the driver fled the scene, leaving the vehicle behind.

"One person had died during treatment at the hospital while another was injured but under treatment at the district hospital. According to preliminary information, the bus is registered with a private tour and travels company and was ferrying some passengers," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Vidya Sagar Mishra told PTI.

"The driver apparently could not negotiate a turn on the road and instead ploughed the bus into the boundary wall of the society. How all this happened is part of the investigation and will be clear once the driver is arrested," Mishra said.

According to the eyewitnesses, the bus was moving from Sector 74/75 side towards Sector 122 and the driver appears to have lost control at the turn of the road in front of the society.

Bhagat Singh, who owned the fast food stall where Deepak worked, told reporters that he was at the spot when the incident took place.

"The bus was moving at high speed. I caught the bus driver but I was alone and had no support from anyone else so he ran away. He was drunk (on alcohol) when I caught him," Singh, who lives in Shri Ram Apartments, claimed.

"I had set up this momo stall four months ago. Deepak and Sushil lived in nearby Sorkha village. Pawan also got injured in the accident. All three of them hailed from Nepal," Singh added.

Meanwhile, police placed traffic diversion on the road stretch from around 8:45 pm as a crane was called in to remove the bus.